Conservation of Momentum

We have already seen Newton's Second Law,

F = m a

in looking at the cause and effect of motion.

Now we turn our attention to Newton's Third Law,

F12 = - F21

From Newton's Third Law, we already know that these two forces are always equal in magnitude and opposite in direction, F12 = - F21,

This means the total momentum is a constant; we call this Conservation of Momentum.

Impulse

Inelastic Collisions
Return to ToC, Momentum

(c) 2002, Doug Davis; all rights reserved